The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-02-25

Christianity" save from the standpoint
of a somewhat wide study. is as if man
should lecture on the sun knowing nothing
of what the spectIoscope and telescope
have shown in the last thirty years. Very
noble are the words Of the New Testament
cannot be paralleled ont Of other
bibles or that they are unmixed with in
tellectual error, or that they represent all
moral ideals, or that the spiritual impulse
Jesus and Paul gave to the Roman world.
can only be explained by miracle, such
friend betrays more reverence for his pa
rents and his ministers than for the great
ness of the hannah mind and the wonder Of
the universe. lie does not betray ripened
knowledge. The vast good which a Jesus
and bible do is to emphasize and so to in
troduce the better view. The harm which
Jesus and a bible do is that the reverence
for them keeps the old views prominent
when it is time for farther change That
is not their fault, but ours. And hardly
our fault. Our fear of losing some vision
that we know has been helpful tends TO
make us disown the actually better vision
that comes afresh to us, who have eigh-
teen hundred years more of human insight
organized within rs. 1t is true that one
may not only rashly give up, but rashly
lay hold of, the better thought; in which
case it will not do him all its good. But
the fact remains, that, 18th tile broader
reading of to-day into the long processes of
mans development, the seeming exeep-
tons disappear, and we are lead on to
grander glimpses of a God as uniform ia
history as in the operations Of the rest Of
nature, on to see how, in accordance
with great laws
Through the ages one Increasing purpose
RUNS
And The thoughts OF men are Widened with thu
process of the suns"
This grander view is the later one
why? Because tile earlier ages could not
see the truth in it, mans eyes not then
having acquired enough experience. As
the light flows into orr minds and shows
us all phenomena in new relations, one by
one the old ideas fade and vanish. no. into
nothingness, we need not be afraid Of that,
but to give place to something akin
which is ;ruer, aud this in turn, no
doubt, must suffer change into something
better yet. Neysr think that yeu have got
to the END of your thinking, that there is
not truer and better yet than you ever
~ l,
mind, and ever openly ayowed, it surely
seems higher truthfulness to use the best
truth possible to cur hour rather than to
keep the Shut lips in religion which some
men prefer. Higher truthfulness, for in
stance, 10 say of the One Almighty Force
of the universe, 1T is our God and Faith
er, rather than to call it ''the unknow-
able. To that extent it is not unknow
able,-the mystery lying not below. but
above all our ideas of Personality, Faith
erliness and Life. God is all that We think
and name-and infinitely more.
Let that faith sustain as and make
US brave if ever our minds feel
compelled to give up cherished old beliefs
and go wandering forth at fl rst not know
ing what new shelter will take the place Of
the old homestead. 1t is often great
comfort when beset with religious doubts,
yes, or with the great life-darkness of any
kind, to remember this; that We never are
seeing to the bottom Of truth, and that,
meanwhile
sour fathers are foolish by falling below
Net coming above, What God viii show:
That his commoRest thing holds awondervast,
To whose beauty our eyes have never past,
Gods fact, in the present, or ia the to-be,
Outshines the best that we think we see.